Nasscom calls for uniform policy on e-commerce taxation

FILE PHOTO: IT industry body Nasscom on Tuesday called for a uniform policy on taxation of e-commerce companies by states.BENGALURU: IT industry body Nasscom on Tuesday called for a uniform policy on taxation of e-commerce companies by states.

"Karnataka government's approach to taxation of e-commerce companies remains a concern. Many states have adopted pol cies that do not have such a nega ive impact. So perhaps it is important to have a uniform policy .We have also requested he ministry of commerce to issue a broad advisory to the states as all these transactions are not confined to one single state," Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar said on the sidelines of the Banga oreITE.Biz event.

The Karnataka government has proposed hat e-commerce firms such as Amazon and Flipkart deduct 1%, rom payments to vendors, in the form of VAT at source. The commercial taxes department also suggested that the portals remit the taxable money to it, and the dealers could later claim credit or refund on this amount while discharging their VAT.

"Nasscom's view is this results in a higher incidence of tax. Since these e-commerce companies are merely platforms, we feel this is not appropriate.

Policies should be conducive for the adoption of digital methods," Chandrashekhar added.

Thanks to the conflict, Flipkart and Amazon have set up their latest fulfilment centres in Telengana. Amazon has been demanding exemption on VAT payment saying its fulfillment centre only stocked, packed and dispatched products and was not doing business directly . It wants the government to collect VAT from sellers.